what i personally do is once the match is over, ill talk about what i had in hand, what my openers were and what not, i usually end up learning something new, it all depends on how its done, and what the vibe of the game is, some people take offense, some people like to talk about possible lines of play, personally i like seeing their hand and showing mine so i can hopefully learn something new.

I try not to interact with my opponent in chat unless I know them. I just minimize the window and if they're getting salty I never have to worry about it. I never reveal my hand on purpose but I think I reveal it by accident, like, a lot. The "Show your hand" button is right where the "go to next phase" button was the second before the game ended.

I try not to interact with my opponent in chat unless I know them. I just minimize the window and if they're getting salty I never have to worry about it. I never reveal my hand on purpose but I think I reveal it by accident, like, a lot. The "Show your hand" button is right where the "go to next phase" button was the second before the game ended.

This is what I mean, if you're clicking ok when your opponent scoops they're probably going to see your hand by accident.

I try to be polite throughout my games, so it's pretty rare that I get negative feedback. For example, I almost always play Dredge in Vintage and have gotten grief about it maybe twice. If I'm chatting about lines of play, or if my opponent is commenting on how far they were off of outs (which the cards in my hand would affect) I will show it pretty often. Otherwise I rarely bother. I can't recall getting upset about it or my opponent acting upset.

I personally like the chat window. I mean, how hard is it to be friendly really? Not that hard if you try. When I started playing people gave me great play-by-play advice in the chat and were really supportive.

This might be a phenomena that only I experience, I don't know... But I am much more easily tilted while playing MTGO than paper. However. I have taken the time to get to know my regular opponents to varying degrees (some I've become friends with outside of MTGO) and doing so has helped tremendously. Once someone becomes more than just the opposite side of a computer screen it's easier to relate to them and realize it's just a high-variance game.

This won't work for everyone. Some people are salty pricks no matter what the scenario is. But if you are the type to find yourself easily annoyed during online Magic play, try being more friendly from the outset and you might find it makes for a better experience.

One more thing I try to do is to realize that nowadays all of my bad beats translate into someone else's great day... Any time I lose a game or a match to a newer player they seem all excited to have beaten me. I guess I can be glad I'm making someone happy.

To quote the great Stefan Ellsworth from last night's @Brass-Man stream, "MTGO: the interface you're afraid to interact with." There is a "feature" in which the screen resizes after a game and when you go to draw a card or to proceed to sideboarding, you end up clicking on the "Reveal Hand" button accidentally. It is possible this happened to the opponent @Preordain mentioned. In general, unless a random opponent asks to see my hand, I don't show it to them. Doing so unsolicited makes the opponent wonder, "why is he/she/they doing this" and it's very easy to come to the conclusion that it's meant negatively.